Monday, 6 October 2014

REVIEW & BLOG TOUR Beat (The Beat and the Pulse #1) by Amity Cross

Renee "Ren" Miller was five when her Dad left to go to the shops and never came back.

Left to grow up with a cancer riddled mother, things have never been easy for a teenager who had to be wise beyond her years. Then one day they lose the battle and she’s all alone.

Now twenty-two, Ren reluctantly goes to find her estranged father. He owns the down and out boxing studio, Beat, and Ren finds herself drawn to the ring. She thrives on learning a new way of fighting a life that kept kicking her down…instead of struggling against the current, she kicks it right between the legs.

Just the prologue alone catches your attention and makes you sit up and think "WTF?"Ren hasn't exactly had an easy ligfe and now she's found her father, it's not looking much better. Ash is an MMA fighter with a secret - past and present.What happens when their two worlds collide? Fireworks. Panty melting fireworks is what. These two characters are really engaging and the story Amity weaves around them captures you and takes you right into their world. Onto the mats. Into the ring.Some books over describe the setting, features and accessories. This doesn't. It has the perfect amount, which is actually very little. The focus is on the characters. And yet I found myself watching the book in my head like I was watching Beat in a movie (bloody great movie it'd make too, BTW). I do so love it when a book can make me do that, and despite the amount of books I read, it doesn't happen as often as you might think.It took an epic effort to pull myself away from Beat to do the things demanded my attention throughout the 30 or so hours it took to read it. Why do the family want dinner? Can't they see I have my nose buried in a book?! ;)I'm eagerly looking forward to Pulse and what happens to Ash and Ren, where the journey willtake them from where Beat ends.This was the first ever Amity Cross book I've read and I'd be lying if I said i didn't want to go and check out her other books.So, I think it it's not on your TBR then you need to add it and remember to #LickAFighter

You could say a lot of
things about me and they all wouldn’t be nice. I’ve done a lot of things I’m
not proud of.

People looked at me and
only saw what was on the surface.

Money. Power. Talent.

Cash was the driving
factor. Mainly because I was winning it out from under everyone’s noses on a
daily basis by just being good at punching the shit through people. It’s
fucking great to ride high, but there’s always someone right at your heels,
snapping like a rabid beast, waiting for the moment you stumble.

Yeah, that’s the thing
about getting a little fame and money - it made everyone below you jealous and
jealous people were willing to do whatever it took to bring you down. They all
wanted the prize and not all of them were up for playing fair to get it. There
were lines you never crossed and that line had been obliterated a long
time ago.

My Mum would be totally
horrified knowing what I made of my life after she was gone. I lived for her,
to see her win her battle, but in the end she lost. I wasn’t losing this fight.
The fight for my future. How could she argue with that? She always wanted the
best for me, even when she was too sick to move and this is my best.
It’s just that it involves pounding my fists into the flesh of my opponent
until they drop.

The love of a man. The love
of an estranged father. The love of a mother… What good did it do if they just
abandoned you in the end?

Me and my fists. That’s
what would get me through this battle. That’s what would get me onto that
podium. Me.

It didn’t start out this
way. I, least of all, didn’t see it coming until it hit me square in the face.

The day I stood outside the
place that would change my life into something unrecognisable.

The sign over the roller
door that was painted in red letters. Red - the same colour as the blood that I
drew three nights a week in the cage.

Amity Cross isn’t my real name. That’s no secret.I didn’t want my Mum and my workplace to find out I wrote about doodles and tongue-in-cheek sexual innuendo.I
live in a leafy suburb of Melbourne writing about screwed up
relationships and kick ass female leads that don’t take s**t lying down.Insert more pretentious c**p here.